Precursors Effect
by Ny'Kle
Summary: The story of how and why things are the way they are. Fixes the end of ME3 that everyone seems to hate.
1. Chapter 1

Halo/mass effect/aliens time line

**3 billion BC**=Start of the Precursor recorded history.

**2.4 billion BC**=start of the Precursor/Ravager War.

**2.1 billion BC**=the Ravagers capture Precursor technology, and turn themselves into Reapers.

Catalyst, (a rampagant Precursor AI that was made to find a solution to the organic/synthetic struggle) contacts the Ravagers, and convinces the Ravagers to let Catalyst use old Precursor technology to turn them into Reapers.

**1.85 billion BC**=the Precursors create the sentient parasitic disease called the Flood to infect the Reapers. The plan fails.

**1.8 billion BC**=the Precursors mutate the Xenomorph species, changing them from a species on the verge of becoming a civilized race, to a species of biomechanical killing nightmares.

**1.799999** **billion BC**=the Xenomorph 'Tread Lightly', is ...uh...born? Hatched?

**1.5 billion BC**=the Xenomorphs are the Precursors primary soldier for fighting the Flood; their acid blood preventing them from being Flood-infected.

**0.85 Billion [850,000] BC**=end of the Precursor, Xenomorph/Reaper, Flood War.

The Precursors seal Catalyst into a containment vessel and launches it into dark space. The Precursors rewrite the Reapers commands, and shut them down. The Flood is de-organicfied, and the remains put into dark space.

**849, 999 BC**=Xenomorph Tread Lightly, is transformed into a Xenomorph/Precursor hybrid. An unexpected side effect is that he can change his form, his species, at will. His new name is: Eliii Yiiiti.

**849,984 BC=**Xeno/Precursor Eliii protests over mistreatment of Xenomorphs, and other sentients. He is exiled to the far future of a presently semi-sentient species. He will be born as one. He will have no memory of his past life. He is exiled 847,990 years into the future of the Humans.

**350,000 BC=**the Precursors build their successors, the Forerunner, can their successors'' successor, the Human. The Precursors set themselves up to be defeated by the Forerunner. The Precursors depart to the Andromeda Galaxy.

**112,500 BC**=start Human/Flood War.

**112,200 BC**=start Forerunner/Human War.

**112,150 BC**=end Human/Flood War, Humans win. End Forerunner/Human War, Forerunners win, Humans de-evolved.

**100,324 BC**=start Forerunner/Flood War.

**100,000 BC**=Forerunner, named Didact, activates the Halo Array from the Ark, Killing all organic life in the Milky Way Galaxy, all life over 2.5 pounds.

**2012 AD**=start of the 2nd American Civil War.

**2014 AD**=end of 2n American Civil War. Texas secedes to form the Independent Republic of Texas. (IRTX)

**2016 AD**=start of World War 3.

**2019 AD**=end of World War 3.

**2050 AD**=first colony on the Moon. First man on Mars.

**2100 AD=**the UN votes to make a new Branch: the United Nations Space and Colonization Branch. (UNSCB)

**2150 AD**=the first of several inter-colonial civil wars, between the colonies on Mars, Europa, Titan, and others.

**2156 AD**=the UN decides to add a military component to the UN: the UNSC Army. UNSC Navy. UNSC Air Force. UNSC Marine Corps.

**2188 AD**=an uprising on Mars, shows that a military cannot fight battles, or win wars if the politicians are calling the shots. The UN votes for the UNSC to become a separate identity.

**2300s AD**=Humanity's first FTL device, called the 'slip-space' drive is created.

**2400s AD**=A slow burning rebellion between the Inner Colonies [those in the Sol system] and the Outer Colonies.

**[2498 AD**=Sangheili Ny 'Kle Vandan is born. He soon reaches the revered rank of Major Ultra grade 1(he is above everyone.)]

**2525 AD**=First Contact with an alien species on the Outer Colony planet of Harvest. It does not go well. Soon the planet communications stop. The UNSC sends 3 Destroyers, each armed with the new MAC gun. The ships are only in real space for less than 20 seconds before returning, only one ship survived long enough to turn around to flee. It was heavily damaged by High-Power DEWs. (Lasers)

**June 12th, 2525 AD**=only 3 days after first contact, the alien alliance called the Covenant, declares Wars on all of Humanity. Start of the Human/Covenant War.

**March 3rd, 2553 AD**=End of the Human/Covenant war. The Sangheili, lead by Thel 'Vadan-the Arbiter, take a 'Permanent Oath' vowing to always stand beside Humanity, and to aide and defend Humanity if attacked. Humanity, lead by Sir Lord Hood, accepts and gives a similar Oath.

**2557 AD**= Major Ultra grade1 Ny 'Kle Vandan, along with his cousin, the Arbiter, finds Master Chief, two elites, some SPARTAN4s and the Forerunner: Didact. They are attacked by the Precursor 'Timeless One'. Ny 'Kle gains his memory. He allows himself to be fatally injured by the 'Timeless One'; allowing Chief to use his scorpion tank to bring down the wall, killing the Precursor. The group; dragging Ny 'Kle against his will- to the rescue ship, as the nuke blows, destroying the Hive of Elite born-Xenos.

**2558 AD=**Ny 'Kle is reincarnated. He is Precursor.

**2559 AD**=the rescue ship returns to Earth. There is celebration for the return of Master Chief and the Arbiter; and a funeral for Ny 'Kle Vandan.

**2560 AD=**the UNSC and RoS, start building ships to defend themselves from the Covenant. The real reason is that ONI has found rumors of the "Precursors" that the Arbiter, Chief, Cortana, and the two Elites that came with them talk about.

**2584 AD**=ONI was right. A group of Precursor ships, each over 40km long appear in Earth Orbit. The Orbital MAC Platforms work beautifully, the cooperation of Humans and Elites awesome. But more ships appear, over Elite planets, Human planets, and military planets.

**2616 AD**=the war is over. The UNSC, RoS, and the New Covenant, are victorious. The Precursors leave, sending a message: they will return, their fleets will darken the skies of every world. The Govts decide that the present way of military structure was not enough. The UNSC and RoS are disbanded. The 'United Human Government' and 'Sangheili Federation' are formed. Those unwilling to change to the new protocols are exiled. The UNSC loyalists and the Republic of Sangheilios (RoS) are loaded onto their ships, relics from the human/Covenant War (2525-2553). Notably the RoS S-CAS class Assault Carrier 'Shadow of Intent', the UNSC Infinity(salvaged from Requiem by ONI in 2589), and the RoS S-CCS Super Cruiser 'Seeker of Truth' the antiqued flagship of the Arbiters Fleet.

**2634 AD**=the Precursors attack. Thousands of their ships are reported, along with tens of hundreds of thousands of other ships, ships that behave more like the 'Scarabs' of the Human/Covenant War; living thing(s) inside of, or part of a fighting machine. These ships use a shield system different than Sangheili and Human ships use. These robot ships, named "Reapers" by the Precursors, had shields that were only effective against physical projectiles; the shields had zero effectiveness against the Elites' Plasma weapons. John Sheppard, the Master Chief, deemed a UNSC Loyalist, but also deemed a resource too valuable to exile, died, at New Cairo, Egypt; while in battle against Precursor Commandos. He detonated the Micro-Fusion Battery in his MJOLNIR armor. The blast was equal to 75 tons of TNT. He died at age: 117.

**2698 AD**=after a civilian lead Coupe, the UNSC is re-formed. Very soon after, a similar Coupe is launched on Sangheilios, being successful, the RoS is also re=formed.

**2729 AD**=the last of the ships are through the Portal. The Combined Fleets of the UHG/UNSC, the SF/RoS, and the New Covenant, which numbered in the tens of thousands, have been reduced to 14 space worthy ships. The Reaper Fleet, which numbered in the tens of Millions, have been reduced to a few hundred. The Precursor Fleet which numbered in the Thousands (Remember, each Precursor ship is longer than 40km), and have been reduced to less than 500 hundred. The RoS S-COS class Super Carrier, 'Were It So Easy', Shipmastered by Ulzoac 'Vadan, crashes his ship into the Forerunner structure; smashing, crashing, the Eons old relic, denying the Reapers and the Precursors access to the Ark.

**2785 AD**=the original UNSC and RoS Loyalists that were exiled, have established stable colonies. No contact with anyone, with the exception of their exiled counterparts, no Reapers. No Precursors. No Combined Fleets. Nothing.

**3484 AD**=The Reapers have Destroyed the UNSC Exiled Colony, the colonies' MAC gun destroying a Reaper Battle Ship. Tha RoS Colony sent help, but it arrives too late; all that remains are the smoking, cratered planet. And the cleanup crew of Reapers. Very Soon, there are no more Reapers.

**4448 AD**=The Reapers are tasked with the duty of maintaining the Milky Way Galaxy. Using reaper Technology, that is, Primitive Precursor Technology, the Reapers build the Mass Relays, the Citadel, and the other devices needed to harvest the advanced organic brain material every 50,000 years.

The Precursors realized that the development of AIs in the Human, Sangheili, and New Covenant, was one of the main reasons for their defeats, and lead to the escape of the humans, elites, and others, through the Forerunners sub-dimensional Portal to the extra-Galactic super station, called the Ark.

The Precursors set the Reapers to cull the galactic civilizations from the galaxy to insure that when the Precursors do return to the galaxy, there will be minimal, if any AI resistance.

**37 million years later...**

Humans have re-emerged. So has many other advanced species. The whole time, the IRoS, (the Independent Republic of Sangheili) have watched and listened, developing a system to extend one's life span indefinably (though most choose not to, and choose to live a normal life) and have helped the promising species to advance beyond the technological vise that the Reapers have enforced...

**Alliance Year: 2182 AD**=the first human specter, Commander John Sheppard (yes he's related to the MCPON-117), tracks down the rogue specter Saren. The Commander and his crew, aboard their primitive stealth vessel, called the 'Normandy', found Saren, tracked him to the ancient forerunner shield-world- now called 'Ilos'. Meanwhile, the Reaper, called Sorveringe, attacked the Citadel, and the human fleet, somehow using primitive versions of the Reapers already primitive Precursor weapons, managed to kill the Reaper Dreadnought.

**Alliance Year: 2182 AD**=Sangheili operators detect the presence of the Reapers personal thralls, called the Collectors. Before the Sangheili Reaper Patrol Forces can respond, the human ship 'Normandy' enters the system. The Collector "Cruiser"(though to the Elites, it's more like a frigate) attacks the Normandy. The Normandy, outfitted with the latest in human re-designed Reaper Technology (anything that uses Technology incorporating Mass Effect, is considered Reaper Tech, and if its Reaper tech, then its considered primitive Precursor Technology), is no match for the Collector's very primitive directed energy weapon (aka a laser). That technology was given to the Protheans, before they were defeated by the Reapers. The Sangheili Patrol can only sit and watch as the human ship is destroyed. It is however, the Patrol that sends the distress signal.

**Alliance Year: 2188 AD**=the human john Sheppard and the new ship, 'Normandy 2' find the disabled Reaper orbiting Mnemosyne that the UNSC Exiled Colonies' MAC gun killed. Soon after, the Normandy travels to the Reaper built galactic center Reaper building station, and destroy it.

**Alliance Year: 2188 AD**= Earth is under attack by Reaper Forces. The IRoS is contacted by the "Old One". : The IRoS is to assemble the Fleet and travel to Earth. The "Old One" himself, is coming to do battle with the Ancient Enemies…


	2. Chapter 2

"No, no, no! This can't be happening!" Joker yelled as another Reaper Dreadnought destealth and smashed through two Alliance Heavy Cruisers trying to block its way from landing.

The Reapers had appeared out of nowhere, just inside the Moons orbit.

The first wave had come in unopposed, as the Home fleet had been blockading the Mass Relay.

The Reapers had some sort of invisibility cover, shielding them from radar, heat sensors, and visual sensors.

The Brass on the surface had just let the Normandy go, EDI and all. Commander Sheppard was stuck ground-side.

"Jeff, I am detecting an anomaly, I cannot identify it." EDI reported.

What do you mean 'anomaly'?" Joker questioned.

"Anomaly detected, off starboard bow, eleven O' clock."

Between the Moon and Earth, a massive blue and white flash appeared, with around a hundred, light blue portals opening.

Things were coming out of the portals.

"EDI, what the heck is that _thing_?"

"It would appear to be, a vessel of unknown design, approximately 27kilometers in length. The next largest unknown ship is a similar designed ship, 8km long. By the way that the fleet is in formation, the 27km ship is the core ship, similar to ancient US Navy Carrier Fleets. The 8km ship is most likely the-incoming message, beamed transmission."

"Meaning exactly what EDI?"

"Only we are being contacted"

"Oh great, an alien fleet just appeared out of nowhere, and they have to pick the Normandy out of a ka-billion ships…"Joker muttered.

"Ok EDI, let's hear it."

A rough, male voice spoke, in English; but as if it was trying to speak without using its tongue.

"Human stealth ship, identify yourself."

Joker took a breath and replied.

"This is SSV 'Normandy' of the Human Systems Alliance."

"This is the carrier, 'Shadow of Intent' of the Independent Republic of Sangheilios. This is the Flagship of the Fleet of 'Unending Vow'. We are here to assist the Humans, and whatever allies it has now. But first, led us deal with those Reapers."

The IRoS fleet broke down into four groups, leaving the giant 27km ship and 12 other ships of a similar but different design and 2km long themselves, a screening force. The groups went down to the surface.

"Jeff, incoming Reaper, Dreadnought class, range, seven kilometers."

"Oh s**t!"

The Normandy jerked, dodging the Reapers' liquid iron gun. The Normandy turned and twisted, but could not lose the Reaper among the wrecks of the nearly annihilated Alliance Fleet.

"Jeff incoming IRoS ship, dead ahead, range 3 kilometers, closing fast!"

"Whoa!" The Normandy swerved.

"Jeff, I'm detecting an extreme increase in the glowing lines along the lateral conduits on the sides of the ship."

Suddenly, a solid beam of pure white and purple energy shot out of the huge purple and pink ship towards the also huge black and red Reaper ship.

Joker watched as the pulse of energy passed where the Reapers' Barriers should have stopped the energy. The pulse struck the hull of the Reaper, melting straight through it.

The pulse blasted the Reaper in half, the Reapers' Element Zero Core exploding.

Joker looked out, as this scene replayed itself all across Earth Orbit.

The entire Reaper first invasion, gone, not a single one of these purple ships even damaged.

'We mint just win this' Joker thought.

END CHAPTER ONE


	3. Chapter 3

_**I don't own halo, mass effect, AVP, or any other that may happen to appear.**_

"What the heck is that?" yelled Sheppard.

They were about to assault the landed Reaper.

Now, a huge purple and pink ship, not Reaper, had appeared above the city.

All reaper forces had fled their mother ship, and now the Reapers main gun was swiveling to target the new ship.

"Oh no, they must not know the danger of the Reapers." Sheppard said.

The Reapers' Main gun fired the molten iron out shining the setting sun.

The iron rose up, and right before striking the hull of the purple ship, stopped.

A close-fitting shield stopped the Reapers main gun, a gun that Sheppard had seen punch straight through a Turian Dreadnought, back in the Battle of the Citadel.

This shield flared a bright blue, and as the Reapers shot ended, the shield returned to normal.

A mumble of thoughts passed through Sheppard's mind.

'What is that thing?'

'Who are they?'

'How can their shields stop a Reaper Dreadnoughts Main gun?'

Before any more thoughts could pass, the purple ship shifted to the left slightly, revealing at least eight turrets, each spouting twin barrels.

A single turret lit up.

The Reaper started to engage its engines.

The purple ship let lose its energies, twin bolts of purple light setting an eerie glow, as they streaked toward the Reaper.

The bolts did not have much time to travel.

The first completely ignored the Reapers over-charged Kinect Barriers, and slammed into the reaper, causing an enormous purple explosion.

Right as the first glare of the first blast started to clear; Sheppard could see a smaller fire ball coming out of the other side of the Reaper.

'-That blasted right through the Reaper-'

The second bolt of purple light struck the blasted Reaper, this time, finishing the job of the first bolt, blowing the two kilometer long ship clean in half.

The rest of the thought came rushing in.

'Just one turret, two bolts, and it kills- no, it OVER-kills a Dreadnought class Reaper.'

Sheppard's radio made static.

"Normandy to Sheppard, come in Sheppard."

"I'm here Joker."

Commander, you won't believe this! Some new fleet came! They call themselves the fleet of 'Unending Vow'. Commander they got laser guns, they were blasting Reapers left and right! And-"

"I know Joker, I know."

"Er, you do?"

"Yeah, one of them ships just came down and blasted a Reaper Dreadnought in half."

"Yeah uh,-wait, ok, uh Sheppard, their flagship just contacted us, they say that they're gonna bring you up to us."


	4. Chapter 4

_**I don't own halo, mass effect, AVP, or any other that may happen to come up in this story.**_

Sheppard looked at the "Sangheili".

They were about three and a half meters (10.5 feet) tall, wore bright colors, with no regard for camouflage, although all were matte. (Not shiny, or flashy)

They came right down, with no thrusters, no mass effect fields.

One in white armor, with a particular head crest; walked up to Sheppard.

"You are Lieutenant Commander John Sheppard, yes?"

"I am."

"The Shipmaster demands your presence."

* * *

"So, you are the Human that is the distant descendant of the Demon, eh?"

"What?"

"Never mind, you are Commander Sheppard, Shipmaster of the human ship 'Normandy'?"

"Yes."

"I am the Shipmaster of the CAS class Assault Carrier 'Shadow of Intent'. I am also the Fleetmaster of this fleet."

Tali spoke up at this. "Wait, so you are the Admiral _and_ the Captain?"

"Yes?"

"The Fleet of Unending Vow is here, because a person, who we Sangheili refer to as the Old One, said to. He said that the time has com. He was referring to the time when the Sangheili would no longer stand by, and watch as the Reapers come and destroy everything, like we always had."

"Wait so you mean that the Sangheili have been around since before the last Reaper extinction?"

"No, young Child, the Sangheili have been in this Galaxy since before the _**FIRST**_ Reaper invasion."

"How…?"

"Humanity was under another name, but we all had finished the first Precursor War, and the Governments had changed, and exiled the majority of the fighters from the War. We only received messages, but never responded. To respond would be death, as then the Reapers would find our world, and our populations were greater than we could fit on our ships to evacuate."

"Evacuate where?"

"To the Ark, a massive extra-galactic station, far, far away. That's where the rest were going. Its Portal was on Earth, before the rearguard destroyed it.

So we have remained here, alone in the Galaxy. We have watched countless civilizations rise and fall. Those that are promising, we helped. A nudge here and there, hinting at Plasma technology, or sub-dimensional manipulation*.

The Protheans were on the verge of 'out growing' the Reapers technology."

But now, that is over, too long have the mighty Sangheili hid in darkness.

"It is time for us to throw down the Reapers. For the first time, in 37 million years, a Sangheili will walk the streets of Sanghelios."

The other Sangheili in the room roar agreement.

"Sheppard"

"Yes?"

"In ancient times, the Humans called my kind "Elites". It would be an honor for that tradition to carry on."

* * *

"Joker, what the h**l did you let happen to my ship?"

"Oh, commander, uh, hi"

"What happened?"

"Oh one of those Sangheili ships fired its Plasma laser, and we were too close-I'll emit to that- and I guess that the circuits on the Normandy aren't up to Plasma radiation."Joker answered.

"So what are the Elites doing now?"

"The what's?"Joker asked.

"The Sangheili, that's what the Shipmaster said that the ancient humans called the Sangheili: Elites."

"Oh, well the 'Elites' have these floating computer-gas bags. They're replacing the wiring and some upgrades."

So what are we going to do now?

Well, the elites have destroyed the first Reaper fleet, but I guess that once they realizes that, they will come running. We'll have to hold out until we can get a ship out to check on the other species, see how they're doing."

One of those gas bags floated down to them it chirped.

Both of their data pads flared to life.

'INCOMING DATA...

VISUAL FROM IROS STEALTH SATILLITE 34-56:

The video showed the Mass relay for the Sol system.

It glowed bright.

And tens of thousands of Reapers poured out.'

All around them, sirens called out. Aliens ran from station to station.

"Commander Sheppard proceed to your ship."

"Good hunting."

Sub-dimensional manipulation*= Slip Space.


	5. Chapter 5

Commander Sheppard, take the' Normandy' now and exit the hanger, the 'Shadow of Intent' will enter battle.

Sheppard watched from beside Joker as the 'Shadow' accelerated away from the 'Normandy'; along with eight cruisers.

* * *

A multitude of Reapers moved to engage.

"Shipmaster, the Reaper ships, they're in a staggered line, they out number us 8 to 1.

"Then it's a fair fight, all cruisers fire at will, burn their cursed hides."

Eight beams of purple light streaked into contact with the 8 lead Reapers.

Now there were 8 dead Reapers.

The Elites spearhead formation rocketed into the Reaper line.

Plasma torpedoes flew out in broadsides, obliterating Reapers left and right.

Reaper liquid iron guns impact on Elite Energy Shields.

As the shields on a cruiser dropped to allow a plasma torpedo out, the iron from a Reapers gun struck its hull, frying the shield projectors.

The cruisers side crumbled.

It veered out of combat, the Reapers disregarding it.

It made a 'bat out of hell' dive to the surface.

The Elites formation, now with a piece missing, faltered.

More cruisers fell.

Now the Assault Carrier 'Shadow of Intent', which had not fired a single round, stood nearly alone.

More Reaper ships moved in.

Sheppard watched as the many plasma turrets on the flanks of the 8 kilometer long ship lit up.

He now found out why it was called an 'Assault' carrier.

Many hundreds of miniature plasma torpedoes leaped out, their damaging effects not diminished.

Thousands of PDW laser beams carving surgical cuts, disregarding the Reapers 12+ meter thick armored hull.

Blasts of plasma shot out of plasma projectors, smashing Reapers in half.

In seconds, a single ship reduced more than 45 Reaper capitol ships to scrap metal.

* * *

The other Reapers in orbit physically flinched for a full minute, allowing the other Elite ships, along with even some remaining Alliance ships to destroy over 100 Reaper ships.

But it had cost the Sangheili dearly. 5 Battle Cruisers, more than what had been lost in the last two Reaper Invasion cycles combined.

* * *

Another ship slip-spaced into the solar system. It was enormous, over 20 kilometers long, a mismatch of other ships, all held together by a black resin.

EDIs sensors cut through the stuff.

The ships core was an ancient Covenant Heavy Attack Carrier (Fazed out centuries before the Human/Covenant War [2525-2553]).

It also had pieces, and sections of other ships.

Those including a few Old UNSC cruisers, Old Covenant cruisers, really old Turian dreadnoughts, a Reaper, and some other ships that do not even remotely match any record, even Sangheili.

**Any ideas as to what the new ship might be? **


	6. Chapter 6

Suddenly everyone is struck down.

Commander Sheppard and a few Elites manage to stay up right.

A foreign mind thrusts its way into their own minds.

_"I am a timeless scourge."_

Sheppard stumbled hanging on to the rail on the wall.

"Who… are you?"

_"I? I am a monument to your enemy's sins."_

"Ouch, d… don't talk, it hurts, oh it hurts."

_"But there is much talk. Long have I listened; through rock and metal and time._

_Now I shall talk, and you all will listen."_

The world changed. Everyone saw the same thing through the same eyes.

**War.**

**People. Tall, with four arms, heads like dragonflies', and scaled like scorpions. **

"Long ago, an ancient people made war across the Galaxies."

**The viewers saw many ships, of unimaginable sizes, raining fire upon many planets, some eerily similar to Earth. **

"They conquered the stars, assimilating many in their crusade."

**They saw the People killing what only could be described as monsters, snagle toothed with big bulging eyes, and crude axes in their hands. They saw other creatures, eight legged, four armed cat-things, bowing in defeat in a small village. **

"But they met some, who resisted."

**Now they saw an army of beings that strongly looked like humans marching in regiments armed with swords and bows, and clothed in metal armor, all marching towards a large group of the People.**

"The People, conquered their galaxy, and set their sights on others."

**Now they saw something familiar: the sight of a fleet using a mass relay, and returning into a new galaxy.**

"The People set out to destroy, those who would kill all living things in their galaxy."

**Living Reapers. Reapers made, not of machine and metal; but of flesh and blood. **

**Those were attacking and killing creatures that looked like Asari, but of male and female.**

**Then they saw a glowing red orb, connecting to machines, fabricating the first Reaper ships.**

**The red glowing machines were melting down the living reapers as they came eagerly, to fill the machines of war.**

"The People made a biological weapon to fight the ones you know as 'Reapers'. They failed."

**They saw horrible, mutated things, false shells of their former selves, turning of their former comrades. **

"Their weapon turned against them, they begun fall.

**They saw whole cities, covered in disgusting, pulsating living growths, tentacles grabbing the few survivors. Then from orbit, one of the People pushing the Universal 'Big Red Button' and the fleet in space raining fire on their own world. The emotion was giver that this was the Peoples _Home World_. **

"To fight this weapon, they uplifted my kind to fight."

**They saw a homely city, bricks, masonry, statues- though the statues were blurred like a censor.**

**They saw the people came and brought the blurred out creatures into real civilization. **

"They digresses my kind into nearly mindless killing machines."

**They saw the shape of creatures changed into things that even in a vision, struck fear into the hearts of all living things.**

"The people made us what we have been for over a billion years."

"We won. The Reapers destroyed, their master spaced into dark space, the biological weapon departicalized."

"Then we were betrayed."

**They saw the blurred beings suddenly attacked by the People.**

"Now the Reapers have returned to wreck their vengeance on the galaxy, time and time again."

"No more, the Reapers shall all die"

Sheppard woke on the floor.

Joker was passed out in his chair.

"EDI, status." Sheppard said.

"What… uh... Sheppard are you awake?"

"EDI what happened."

"I think that what happened was that a being of incredible psychological ability, entered the minds of not only the organics, but the synthetics in the Earth orbit, perhaps even on the surface. I believe that it imparted into our minds, a vision, very similar to when you were touched by the beacon on Eden Prime."

"Uhhh, what happened?" Joker moaned.

"EDI thinks that some alien gave all the people on Earth, as well as those in Earth orbit a vision like the one I had from Eden Prime."

"Oh."

"Commander Sheppard, the unknown ship is broadcasting a signal, it is unknown to- oh" EDI trailed off.

"What?"

"It is using Morse code, the ancient human telegraph code. I will translate"

"They are 'suggesting' very strongly, that the Normandy dock with their ship… thing"

Static,"Shipmaster Sheppard, of the Normandy, we are detecting a slip space rupture eminent, move! Now!"Static. Static.

Suddenly, one of those blue portals opened, but less than half a mile away from the Normandy.

The Normandy was sent flying away.

Everything stopped. No power, no lights, no gravity, nothing.

Then slowly, slowly, the power started to return.

"This is the UNSC Excalibur class Heavy Destroyer 'DD-4587 Grizzly'. We are here to assist."

"Wha…?"

The entire Fleet watched as the 650 yard long destroyer pulled up beside the 200 yard long heavy frigate.

Boarding grapples shot out, dragging the disabled frigate to rest against the ship-to-ship docking buffers.

Sheppard, Tali, and Jacobs readied themselves at the airlock.

Thud.

The door opened.

Another Captain, flanked by two men in heavy armor (ODSTs), stepped forwards.

"Commander Sheppard?" the other captain asked.

"I am"

"Captain Jack Sparcil, commander of the Excalibur class Heavy Destroyer 'Grizzly', at your service."

"You have nice timing captain, the elites just wiped out a medium fleets worth of Reapers, at the loss of 5 'Battle Cruisers. Then this big thing comes and gives everyone a vision and demands that I take my ship and go over there. But I can't do that as the hull is breached and engines are hit among other things."

"Well commander the grizzly has a fully stocked repair and supply unit. We could help you"

"Truly Captain, I thank you"

**I guess we're going to have to wait to see what the mystery ship is. Please R&R.**


	7. Chapter 7

"Sheppard, that thing is broadcasting IFFs."

"What are they?"

"Uh, CHACS 'Unyielding Faith', CCS 'Truth and Allegiance', UNSC DDG' Gettysburg', UNSC CCG 'Dakota', TDV 'Dauntless', and=oh, uh the IFFs just went away. They've Been Replaced by just one. It says 'The Hive'.

"Shipmaster Sheppard, are you all right?" the transmission came.

"Yes shipmaster I am." Sheppard replied warily.

"The Reaper fleet is sending a lot of data to an unknown point, they're using a method, that even we don't understand."

Sheppard paused and started to think.

'the elites have been around for as long as the reapers, and all of a sudden this thing comes, and the first thing the reapers do is send data to a unknown place?' thought Sheppard.

Something's not right.

"Sheppard, tha ship is sending us another message… it's in Morse code… they are requesting that the Normandy dock with their ship.

Joker looked at Sheppard, one of those "ah nuts, we're not really going to do that, are we?"

As if reading Jokers mind, Sheppard said.

"Yes Joker, we're really going to do that."

"Jeff, the controller says we are to dock at the lit up hanger."

"There, Joker we're in." Sheppard radioed in. the fear starting to creep into his voice.

Sheppard, Samara, and Ashley entered the ship hesitantly.

Weapons drawn, they advanced down the hallway.

"I don't like this Sheppard; it feels like we're walking down the throat of something."

"Yes Commander, I feel that way as well, it feels as if we're being swallowed."

Sheppard felt that way also. The metal hallways gave way to an organic ribbed passageway.

"Into the belly of the Beast' indeed." Ashley said with a forced laugh.

EDI came onto the radio, scaring them.

"Commander, your signal is fading. Also, I am detecting zero movement, except in the chamber directly in front of you. Also I can-szsz-distinguish the difference betwe -zszszs- ructure and any livi-zszs-things."

"EDI you're breaking up, repeat last, something about distinguishing the difference between the structure and living things." Sheppard said, getting worried, or even more worried than what he already was.

"I-zszs-id, I-zszs-an NOT tell the difference between-zszszszs." EDIs signal faded into static.

"I guess we're on our own now." Ashley said critically.

They continued their trip down the 'throat of death itself as Ashley kept saying.

Ashley was really starting to get on Sheppard's nerves.

Suddenly they rounded a turn, and squatting upon a horrific fleshy pedestal was the single most- "Ungodly" was the word that came to Sheppard's mind- _thing_ that any of them had ever seen, and that's including Sheppard with seeing the Reapers.

It was a black thing, with a huge V-shaped crowned head-a head that had no eyes, no nose, nothing, except a bear mouth full of transparent, razor sharp teeth.

The body was huge, as in sheer size, it was slim, bony, and skeletal, but also the size of an old timey Grey Hound Bus that Sheppard had seen in a museum.

The horrific creature turned its head toward the small trio.

It hissed, sending a primeval shock of fear down everyone's- including Samaras- bodies.

That alien mind from earlier entered their heads again.

"Descendant of my enemy, why have you come? I offer no forgiveness, for fathers' sins, passed to their sons." A female's voice spoke ominously; its voice dripping with hatred, and an emotion came across the mental link, an emotion that sounded like: I-WILL-EAT-YOU-AND-KILL-YOU-AND-FEED-YOUR-UNRECONIZABLE-REMAINS-TO-MY-CHILDERN!

They all staggered back, Ashley turned to run back the way they'd come; only to run chest first into another alien, this one a man sized one. It hissed and slowly crept forward, forcing Ashley to craw backward on her butt and hands.

More of these man-sized aliens just, seemed to, come out of the very walls.

The thought came to Sheppard's mind as he and Samara stood back to back, assault rifles out, as Ashley managed to crawl backwards 30 feet in less than 30 seconds, stood up and wiped out her own assault rifle.

Suddenly, a new voice entered their now trembling minds.

The voice, a males, shouted mentally (physically he screeched).

"What the Heck do you all think you're doing?"

The advancing aliens stopped in their tracks.

They now looked like fresh recruits that now didn't know what to do.

"Do you know what these things are?"

"The male is one of the Reclaimers descendants!"

The pale one is a _human_"- it sent shivers down their spines as the alien mind spoke the word human as if it were an alien sound.

"The blue one is an Asari-o, one of the Original Host-Kind!"

An _old_ alien, nearly three-quarters the size of the first alien crawled out of an old looking hole.

An alien whose head was mothering but scars. One who had literally, the experience of thousands of millennium.

It turned its head to face Sheppard and his team.

"Hello, Commander John Sheppard, Ashley Williams, and Samara. I am Eliii Yiiiti.


	8. Chapter 8

"… **Am Eliii Yiiiti."**

Sheppard and the others stared, mouths open.

A freaking alien was talking to them.

"Who are you?"

"**I am Elii, and I don't like to repeat myself. Now, let me handle this."**

With that, the old alien took off into a heated argument with the larger alien, most of it far too fast for any of them to keep up with it.

The confused group only caught bits and pieces of the exchange.

"…**why would you bring that, of all things up?…"**

'…_it all matters now…'_

…**they don't know, they couldn't know about that… I brought them…**

Suddenly, the large one reacted violently. It was so violent, that Sheppard thought that, if the larger one continued, that he would defend the male alien.

As the large female seemed to pause, as if taking a breath, the old male took his chance.

"**Do you question my judgment?" **

All movement just stopped. All of the aliens, which had been moving restlessly, froze. The female alien, which was the size of a Grey Hound Bus, regarded the old male, which was the size of a dump-truck, in terms of general height and length.

The silence stretched on, uncomfortably. Sheppard, Ashley, and Samara started to point their rifles in the direction of the big female.

The voice came through the mental link.

"_I will… submit."_ The building tension in the air broke; everyone-aliens included- released a held breath.

The old males' voice was heard.

"**You do not know, how relived it makes me feel, to hear that."**

They followed the old male alien through the passageways of the alien ship.

Now that Sheppard got a chance to see the old male up close, he could see that it was much, much older than the original thousands of millennium that he had guessed at its age.

Its mind was incredibly old and vast, but it had a young spark to it.

"**Sheppard, I have prepared something. Something for when this day would come. I have gone through pains and troubles that you cannot even have nightmares about, to obtain it."**It said, leading them into a section of ship that had a much less amount of the alien growths on it.

Sheppard, seeing a potential place to add his two cents into it spoke up.

"Oh really? 'Things I could not have in my own nightmares? Elii, I've had some pretty bad dreams, so-"

"**I know, I've seen them. They're nothing comparable to what I had to physically go through, so do not even think for a moment that you can compare yourself to me."** The alien said tersely, daring Sheppard to keep on going.

Sheppard wisely choose to keep silent.

They arrived at a very large, open room.

"**This, is the main hanger, though it is open to the void, it retains the air, by a device made, by me."**

"…**And, this is what I spent a large part of my earlier life looking for, restoring, and learning everything I could about."**

Sheppard looked out, into the hanger. The darkness just seemed to stretch on forever. Sheppard could just barely make out the outline of a ship.

The ship was small, by the elite's standards. A bit shorter than the grizzly.

The outline was a long, twin-pronged bow, with a substantial body. The whole thing rested upon a large, boxy block; similar to the hangar that the Normandy had docked with.

The old xeno looked to the nearly blind group, and chuckled, a strange, huffing sound.

The world blurred and twisted, colors jumped out at them, while others were toned down.

Now, they could see the ship.

The grey color of the hull was dominant, with the dull-white diminished.

They could see the patchwork of many different hull pieces, all fused together, to form the hull.

The original hull though, they could see that some of it was replaced, but from another restoration.

The hull there was covered in cratered blast marks. The damages were fixed, but as Sheppard would expect for a species with no eyes, the darker, blast marks stood out.

'Whoa, what Tali would give to see this. These things are better at salvage and repair than the Quarians.' Thought Sheppard.

"**This is the 'Forward unto Dawn', the frigate that the Master Chief vanished on, after the battle of the Ark. The same one that he crashed in, on requiem. The same that the precursors recovered, to learn how such a primitive species could hold out against them. The same, that master chief, and the rest of his group escaped on, to escape the NOVA nuke." **

"**The very same, that they crashed, again, and the same that I recovered, collected, found era correct parts for, and the same that you see before you right now."** The old xeno finished.

Sheppard, Ashley, and samara, stood frozen. Frozen, at being in the presence of such a well worn, and above all, old ship.

Sheppard looked at the old alien. The alien had a kind of shimmer about him.

Suddenly, the alien… changed.

One second, it was itself, an old, scarred, alien, the length and height of a dump truck.

The very next second, it was the size of one of those man-sized aliens, twelve feet long, and eight feet tall.

The alien looked at them.

"How is this possible?" Samara asked in wonder.

"I am an ancient person. In my past lives, I fought, against the Reapers. Alongside, the ancestors of your kind, Samara. As well as, your kind, Ashley. "

"But, enough of this talk" the alien said, obviously changing the subject. "Let us not talk of things that happened in times that are best left unspoken. "

"Onward, to the Dawn."


	9. Chapter 9

"So, Mister Alien, can you change into anything else, besides a different sized alien?" Ashley asked in a sarcastic manner.

"**Why, yes I can. And the name is Elii, by the way human." **The now Elite-sized alien said, just as sarcastically.

It turned its head to Sheppard.

"**It has been a long time, since I have spoken to a human, but it seems to me, that if anything, they've just gotten even ruder than they were before."**

"Ashley, be respectful of the kind alien. It stopped that large female from attacking." Sheppard scolded her, like a parent would a child.

"**What? The Queen? I just reminded her who needed who more. Since we've given up the old ways, and returned to the ancient ways, her role as the main reproducer in the Hive has been greatly reduced."**

"What?" Sheppard asked, not knowing what that meant.

"**That means that the queen does not have as much control over the members of this Hive. It means that the individuals are their own person, so to speak."**

The alien sighed. **"She needs me, because I'm the only one that knows how to teach anyone what any of this stuff does."**

"What did you mean by "the main reproducer"? Ashley asked.

"**In the old days, she laid the eggs. The drones brought Hosts, usually humans, or Asari. The "face-huggers would implant embryos in to the hosts. When the infants exited the hosts, they would imprint on the mind of the female that laid their egg. That female would have a certain amount of control over the individual."** The male alien explained.

"And I'm sure that this has some significance somehow…" Sheppard trailed off.

"**With the old ways, all of the Hives were planet based, and nearly all of the females, besides the Queen, are warriors. So if the queen is the one laying all the eggs, and all of the other females are under her control, then she can-and did-prevent all the other females from mating and reproducing."**

"**When I came, I-being one of the ancients- said the old ways would be restored."**

So what does that mean?

"**That means that male and female would, ah… do their thing, and reproduces that way.**

**With my help, we have managed the Hive. And, since it has come to my attention that the reapers are here, and there are humans around, that we would take our part in the galaxy."**

"So you mean that, these aliens will fight against the reapers and any other enemies?" Sheppard questioned, getting straight to the point.

"**Not exactly, they will do what I say, but yes, in simply terms they will destroy the Reapers."**

The alien sort-of smiled.

Some wait. Ashley called out. Why did you tell us about you kind's reproduction cycle? What purpose does it have with fighting the Reapers?

"**Everything!"** The alien said loudly.

"**The main reason my kind has not tried to defeat the Reapers, is because, with the Queen being the only ruling power in the Hive, and with her main short, and long term goals being the existence and expansion of the Hive, the queen will never attack those who will never attack the Hive and will never mess with the Hive."**

"**All the Queen cares about is ruling the Hive. If something attacks the Hive, or the Queen sees something as a threat to the Hive, then that something will have a very bad existence." **

"**I have revealed to the Queen, that the Reapers Plan to wipe out my kind."**

"**The reason I explained the repro cycle, is because, the Queen is old. She has little-if any-experience in modern warfare. In the old days, she would have to, as the humans called "hold their hands" when sending the warriors into battle. "**

"**With the new way of repro, a Host has not been used in thousands of years. Every warrior on the Hive ship is skilled in fighting alone. They will fight skillfully. "**

"**They also have the "smarts" if I remember the usage right, to pilot ships." **

"So, the queen controls the hive, but you control the warriors? Nice." Ashley said.

The male alien shook his head.

"**Not exactly, but enough of this talk, I have lost the point that I was trying to make with you."**

"**Humans" he sighed. "I don't remember it being so tiresome to talk to them."**

"**Now, back to your original question Ashley." **The male alien said, as they approached the primary air lock.

"**Yes, I can change into other species, besides different sized aliens." **He said.

"What kinds?" Asked Sheppard, interested in this detail.

"**Human, Sangheili, Kig-yar, Jiralhanae, and a few others."** The alien said.

"What are those?" asked Samara.

"**The Sangheili is the Elites. The Kig-yar is the Jackals; through I doubt the elites brought them. The Jiralhanae is the Brutes, but I know enough that the Elites would never take assistance from them. "**

A silence crept up on them, while they looked at each other.

Suddenly Ashley spoke up.

"Hey, what kind of guns does this thing have?" she asked, looking up at the hull.

Sheppard followed her gaze up.

It looked like the guns and missiles were fighting over available hull space.

"**Ah, the Forward unto Dawn was originally armed with a Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, called a MAC gun. That was in the bow"**, the alien said, pointing in that direction.

"**She was also armed with four turrets, each with twin 50mm rotary auto-cannons for Point Defense.**

"**Also in the Weapons sections, she had ten Archer missile tubes, an Archer being an Anti-Ship Missile, one having a warhead that made an explosion equal to 68 metric tons of TNT. The tubes had internal reloading mechanisms."**

The alien, Elii took a breath.

"**Aside from that, she had her Marine detachment. Anything else you would like to ask?"**

"Yes" Samara spoke up now. "You said 'was armed with', and 'had'. What does it have now?"

"**Ah, very perceptive." Elii said admiringly. "Yes, the Dawn is newly armed."**

"**She has a Heavy MAC, salvaged from a London class Cruiser."**

"**The old 50mm mini-guns were replaced with a MK.30 Close Interception Weapon Systems. Those are basically 150mm Gauss Gatling Coil-guns."**

"**The missile tubes have been replaced with four, internally reloaded nuclear missile launchers." **

Elii paused as he saw looks of fear appear on Sheppard's, Ashley's, and Samara's faces.

"… **But we don't any nukes to load them with yet."**

"**We've added four, semi-internal missile pods. They have the same internal-automatic loading system as the nuke-launchers. As one missile is shot, another is loaded into the pod."**

"So that means that as long as the missile ammo holds out, you can continually shoot missiles, right?" Ashley said.

"**Yes, that's right. We have them loaded with Archer MK, 2s. They have a non-nuclear warhead that makes a 12 kiloton explosion."**

"**The last offensive weapons that we've added, is eight turrets, each armed with twin 800mm cannons. These cannons fire special shells, ones that have devices that by pass shields. "**

"**Any kind of shields; the ones that the Reapers use, the ones that the Elites use, and a few others." **

"**The shells are each, 7 tons of shield by-passing, armor-piercing, high-explosive, fragmentary destruction."**

Before Sheppard, Ashley, or Samara could ask anything else, Elii cut them off.

"**Enough talk, let us rejoin your comrades."**

* * *

"**Final go-no-go for take-off."** Elii said.

"_Go-launch."_

"_Go-launch." _

The entire systems checks well checked out good.

"**Start engines."**

The whole ship started to shake and rumble, as the "Super-Frigate's"-as Ashley had termed the ship- engines came to life at full power, for the first time, in over a ten thousand years.

"**Start take-off."**

The ship tipped and swayed, releasing itself from the dock in as many years.

"**Is the way cleared?"**

"_Aye sir."_ One of the aliens reported.

"**Let us now left the Hive."**

All of the Aliens seemed to hesitate, like they did not want to leave.

"_Aye Sir!"_

* * *

"Jeff, I am detecting a new contact, moderate tonnage."

"I see it. Opening a link"

"Unidentified Ship, state name, classification, faction, commander, and intentions." Joker droned out.

"_SSV Normandy, this is former, UNSC ship Forward unto Dawn. Former classification: light frigate; present classification: super-heavy frigate. Commander: "Tread lightly" our intentions are to engage the Reapers, and kill them all."_

"…" Was Jokers reply.

_**Will update almost every day.**_


	10. Chapter 10

"Shipmaster, you won't believe it." The Radar Operator said in awe.

"What?"

"Forward unto Dawn"

"B-S" the shipmaster said seriously.

"FFG-201 'Forward unto Dawn'."

"No way, no way it could be that ship. It was lost after the Chief, the Arbiter, and the Arbiters son escaped from the first Precursor Base-World.

* * *

"Frigate Dawn, you have permission to dock with the flagship Shadow of Intent. Be warned, your ship will be boarded."

"Frigate, Forward unto Dawn Acknowledges."

"No, it can't be! All guard units, to the docked ship! We have a security breach!"

"Hands up!"

Ashley turned to Shepard.

"Nice welcoming party."

* * *

The Shipmaster strode up to the group of aliens.

"Let the leader among you're selves come forth."

Shepard, Ashley, and Samara watched as Eliii the alien, stepped apart from the rest.

Suddenly all in the hanger heard a loud voice shouted up.

"Rtas 'Vadum! How have you been, you old son of a B*****?"

* * *

Everyone froze, looking around for who had said those words.

Slowly, it dawned on them, that the alien was who had spoken.

"Who are you?" Shipmaster/Supreme Imperial Admiral/Leader of the entire Sangheili species Rtas 'Vadum said cautiously.

"You don't remember me?" the aliens' leader said, holding out its arms.

* * *

'Who? Who could this xeno be?' Rtas thought, his mind racing.

'What Xenos have I known?'

'Who… wait, no… not him!' Rtas thought, involuntarily taking a step back.

"Tread Lightly" Rtas whispered in fear, his voice barely above the sound made by the gentlest breeze.

"What, why are you… oh, now I remember. The alien said out of the blue as the Shipmaster took a small step back.

* * *

Shepard stepped in to ask something before everything blew up.

"What? What happened?" He asked.

The other black aliens all froze then became restless, as if also remembering something. The large black alien answered without turning to face Shepard; in fact, the alien turned to face the shield-wall that separated the life giving environment of the ship, from the lifeless void of space.

"That of which you ask of, happened millions of century's before the present sub-species of humans came into being."

Now, the alien turned to Shepard.

Shepard could see a strange expression on the aliens face.

Not its' normal "I am an Alien, you look tasty, but I won't eat you" kind of look; but a calm and troubled look.

Shepard indicated that he wanted to hear.

* * *

"Many, many, many, millions of years ago, I was fighting alongside Rtas, Thel, Buck, Jorge, Lopez, and Thel's son, 'Henry' who's real name was stripped, and he was given a human one.

'And, Commander John Ray Sheppard, alongside your ancestor, Master Chief Petty Officer John Spencer Shepard"

Shepard was at a loss for words.

"I was under the guise of Lance corporal Eli Knightly, age 19; as my earlier form had already died."

'Wait, other form? What the –'

"We had found an enemy base, much like the one that you found in the galactic center.

"Except that the one that we found was permanently in FTL."

Tali perked up.

'A 20 kilometer long base in perpetually at motion at the speed of light? How…?'

"In the base, we found that, the enemy that twisted, and warped those, that the humans long ago had named 'Xenomorphs'. Long ago, us Xenos were not like this.

But the enemy had warped these Xenos far beyond what you see here.

We entered the base, and killed all those there, even those humans and Sangheili and others captured, as the Xenos had implanted their young into them.

My cover was blown by one of the enemy commanders.

But, to my surprise, the humans, Elites, and Spartans did not turn on me and allow themselves to be defeated.

We fought the enemy and Rtas got separated from us.

Rtas found a few Elites, and he saved them from being implanted. They managed to get to an escape ship.

But..." He trailed off, turning his eyeless, domed head to face Rtas, who looked ashamed of himself.

"...but, Rtas and his rescued Elites panicked and left without us."

Now Eliii's features hardened.

"Oh we got off. We found the Dawn. Cortana got it out the ground. I shed my ODST vacuum suit to get to the bridge and fly us to a distance that was safe the use her Slip space drive. We got to Earth. I was barely alive by then, ever Xenos need to air after awhile. Then, right before the Dawn was going to crash to Earth, It exploded. Yes 20 year old nuclear gas is very volatile. I got nuclear-ly Spaced. Cortana used the Dawns SS drive to use the Dawn to the next place, which does not concern us right now." Elii now took a breath, calming himself.

"Why, Rtas? Why did you leave us? Though you did not know it, I could have shielded us from the NOVA bomb's blast. This one question above all has been bugging me for the last kazillion years since we last saw each other on that base."

"Why?"

Sorry for such the long update. Everyone in our school that passed our state tests got a free 4-day trip to DC.


	11. Chapter 11

_**The reason for the civilian coop is, look at the dates.**_

_**The new Govts took over in 2616, the war started in 2634 and Master Chief died in that same year. **_

_**The human Govts is like a soviet style, command economy and all. The Sangheili Govts is like an honor lead pre-WW2 Japanese shogun govt.**_

_**The Coops did not happen until 2698, the citizens stood up with those types of Govts for almost 70 years. In reply to your review, DK, DC, DA**_

_**I do not own Halo, Mass effect, AVP or any other. **_

"Um, uh… I, we were all scared, Eliii. The big Precurs… uh Enemy that we'd just defeated blocked the path."

"More Xenos came into the space. Big ones, these had hosted in fellow Sangheili."

"Uh-hm"

"I stumbled through several chambers, and found a Xenomorph birthing chamber. "

"Using my plasma rifle, I destroyed the eggs before the face-huggers could implant the chest-busters."

I killed the Xenomorphs-"the present Xenos hissed in displeasure-"and rescued the Elites…"

Rtas continued his explanation, and apology.

**Place: UNSC vessel, "Grizzly" In Slipspace.**

"This meeting is now started" Tevos.

"Yeah, yeah, but why do we have to be on a _Human_ ship?" Spartacus, the substitute Turian councilor muttered whiningly.

"Because, Spartacus, only this human ship has a sub-dimensional FTL system." Valern, the Salarian said.

The meeting got underway.

The Humans, Asari, the Turians, Krogan, and the Salarians, those whose fleets had come to the Alliances' original call for help.

"This meeting is to co-ordinate our combined fleets against the Reapers" Tevos continued.

Rtas stood.

My fleets' ships' Plasma weapons are vastly proven against the Reapers.

"On the contrary, Supreme Imperial Admiral, "Spartacus, being the Jack-wagon that he is, cut in"we would like to know more about your weapons, to make ones of our own, to make our own ships more effective."

"We received that technology directly from the hands of the Ancients, the Forerunners. We kept it safe, and through events that I will not say, we used it."

"We later entered the Covenant."

"Covenant?" Valern asked.

"Do you want to hear this or not?" Rtas asked impatiently.

"Ok"

We entered the Covenant. And for over 16,000 years, we Sangheili were the military might of the Galaxy.

"But then, we met the Humans."

A deathly hush settled on the gathering.

"The Prophets, the leaders of the Covenant, discovered early on that the Humans were the chosen ones of our gods."

Our Religion was based on the Great Journey, that in finding the sacred rings, and activating them, we would ascend into godhood, as we thought our gods had."

The presence, and existence of the Humans, meant that, our gods had left and also left their successors."

That would mean that the Humans were the gods, and the Prophets would lose all power. "

"So they said that the Humans were a heresy to the gods, a blight that had to be destroyed."

The assembled aliens stared in silence.

Urdnot Klyyr, the Krogan Ship-Battle Master, broke the silence.

"So let me guess, you had a war over nothing more than a religious f-up?"

"Yes…" Rtas answered.

The Krogan smiled.

"… a war that resulted in the near extinction on the Human species."

The Krogans smile lessened.

The reports showed that the Humans controlled over 500 planets" Rtas continued.

Shepard and Anderson looked at each other.

'Humanity was big!'

"At the end of the 27 year war", everyone looked up at that "the Humans had full control of less than 10."

"The Human home world, Earth, was invaded, and the Humans lost over 90% of their total population."

The Krogan had stopped grinning.

"The Human fleets, which had numbered in the tens of thousands of ships, were reduced to no more than 10."

"Or at least, all they could muster for the final assault on their home world was three frigates, including the _Forward unto Dawn_."

"After the war, the Sangheili and the Humans made peace."

"After a few battles with a new enemy, that enemy left."

"Left with a message.

"We will return. Our fleets will darken the skies of every world."

* * *

Those words sent chills down Shepard's spine.

The same words that Sovereign had spoken on Virmire.

_**Sorry for the short chapter.**_


	12. Chapter 12

_**I don't own halo, ME, AVP or any other that appears in the story.**_

Shepard sat in silence as the Kodiak flew back to the _Normandy_ after the War Council went there different ways.

The Elite Fleet Admiral had laid out the plan.

The Xenos had an Ancient Human orbital defense platform.

It defied what could be done with mass effect physics.

Instead of firing a small, dense slug at around a third the speed of light; this platform had a coil-gun that fired a massive, super heavy slug at 0.4% (?) the speed of light.

The Xenos had said that the kinetic energy of the gun would simply make whatever it hit "go away".

The plan was that, went the Reapers attacked, the ODP, with an effective range -the distance at which the 3,400 ton slug reaches terminal velocity, though the slug will still obliterate anything it hits- of 115,000,000 kilometers, would engage the Reapers first.

The Xeno Hive ship, with its multitude of varying weaponry, would stand back and take the role of that of dreadnought, long-range heavy artillery support.

The Elite ships would engage first, their shields and armor being very effective against the Reapers.

Over the last week and a half since the Elites first came, the Elites had lost or sent back over half of their 110 ship fleet, due to destruction, disabling damage, or to transporting wounded and injured.

Only 44 ships remained.

Elites planned to station their huge Super Carrier in the rear, for later in the battle.

And also it was pretty well beat up.

The _Shadow of Intent_ would be in the attack, earning the respect of the Krogan, and the dismay of the others.

When the lead Reapers reached a distance of 50,000 kilometers distance, the Elites with their heavy hitting, heavily armored, fast ships would engage.

The Elites would charge out ahead of the Joint Fleet, engaging the Reapers first.

When the Reapers reached a distance of 35,000 km from Earth, the Turians, with their Dreadnoughts, would engage, using new, heavy cruisers armed with Thanix and heavy mass accelerators to screen them.

When the Reapers reached 15,000km distance from Earth, everything else would open fire. The heavy Asari, Krogan, and the Super Carrier that were being held back so that they wouldn't be disabled in a maneuvering battle, would fire.

That was the plan.

It was revealed, that the Xeno leader, Eli, was an ancient and powerful shape-shifter. One who had lived, and died untold time, and accumulating vast quantities of experience.

When pressed about how old he was, Eli parted with the fact that he'd fought in the Elite/Reaper war, nearly 40 million years ago.

To show an inkling of his abilities, Eli shape-shifted into an Elite, a scarred, 12 foot tall Elite.

The shape-shifting Elite said something in an alien language; something that Shepards Cerberus bought Universal Translators could not translate at all. (The same thing had happened with the Elites language, but at least the Translator software had defined it as gibberish)

All of a sudden, all of the Elites symbols, on their walls, on their armor, even on the few Elites that had tattoos, even the tattoos; they all glow bright white.

The Elite repeated it in English.

"The Ancient Enemies of all living things have returned to the Universe. They have sent the Reapers to test us, and we have held fast. No matter what happens, we shall not falter. Not while I am still breathing. We shall send the Reapers, and whatever else back into the abyss from which they came."

_**Sorry for the short chapter. Please R&R.**_


	13. Chapter 13

'_Shepard wake up'_

"Whoa, what?!" Shepard yelped as he came awake after something spoke into his mind.

He looked around for whoever said that.

Clinging from his ceiling was an adult Xenomorph.

Shepard gasped as his brain was almost completely locked in a state of primitive, primordial fear.

Almost complete.

'_The Old One, whom your kind names Eli, has instructed me to wake you from your slumber. The Old One has instructed me to tell you that the Queen has detected the Far-Hive speak of the Ancient Machines'_

The small part of Shepard's mind that still functioned acknowledged this.

This partially overcame Shepard's fear of the living nightmare that hung from the ceiling.

Shepard edged around the bed, to the wall panel that contained his armor.

"Uh, do you mind?" Shepard asked, starting to put on the armor, wondering why the alien hadn't left yet, or how it had gotten up here.

'_The Old One directed ne to guard you. Your male-human-who-controls this human-Not-Hive allowed me passage to your nesting place.'_

"So you are going to follow me around where ever I go, whenever I go, all the time? Even when I'm asleep?" Shepard asked disbelievingly.

'_Yes'_ came the answer.

The two were silent for a few minutes as Shepard finished fitting on his armor.

"Oh, by the way, what's your name?" Shepard asked, not looking back at the alien, as he trod to the elevator.

The Xeno did not answer.

Shepard stopped, and turned back at the alien.

"What is your name? Do you have one?" Shepard asked, wondering if was going to be like Legion all over again.

'_Xenomorph do not have names, except as Queen names them, or if they have some outstanding physical feature, and even if they do, they do not have names as Hosts-err, humans do'_

Shepard looked closely at the alien, the Living Nightmare, even though it was hard to without flinching.

It was a Xeno, black, skeletal in the body, slightly muscular in the legs and chest, a long skeletal tail that stretched half of its 12 foot length, and finally, the head, about four and a half feet long, recurved with bony circular ridges on the back two-thirds.

With no eyes, no nose, only teeth, that looked to be made of metal.

"Well, would you like a name? Because if you will be around me for a while, then you will need a proper name, because I will not be having the crew calling you whatever they choose."

While Shepard was speaking, the alien had dropped down to the floor of the cabin.

'_I have no use for human names, but since the Old One placed me us your guard, and you are the male-human-who-commands-this human-Not-Hive, then that would mean that you are the Hive-Leader of this…Thing,…boat,…ship? Then you are mine Hive-Leader. I am yours ton command.'_ The alien said, the single longest piece of speaking Shepard had ever heard from a Xenomorph.

"What is your name? Your born, hatched, whatever, what is the name of this individual body?" Shepard asked, wanting to cover all possible holes.

'_Vector' _was the aliens answer.

The Xeno and human stood in silence as the super slow elevator descended through the _Normandy._

'_It would be more effective for this lift to move faster. It would be even more effective if I were t pick you up, rip a hole in the floor, and carry you to the main-hive-level.'_ The alien said.

Shepard wasn't listening.

'"**We shall send the Reapers and whatever else… whatever else"… what did he mean by "whatever else"?'**-Shepards line of thought was broken as the elevator doors opened.

Shepard started to walk at a stiff pace, the alien matching pace, when a scared shat-less voice, full of hysteria, came on through the COMs.

"Shepard! Lots of bad guys! Lots and lots of bad guys!" Joker screamed.

That wasn't what scared Shepard. What scared Shepard, was when EDI didn't correct Joker, like with words like "correction, there are actually so and so many."

"EDI status!" Shepard yelled, as he, and the alien behind him, started to sprint to the CIC.

"Jeff is correct. Reapers are pouring out of the Chiron Mass Relay. The two STG stealth ships have been destroyed. I have counted over 24,000 Reaper ships, and still counting."

'**24,000 Reapers?! Holy Fraking Shat!'** Shepard thought with a rush.

At this point, Shepard reached the Galaxy Map in the CIC.

"Shepard! Message!" Yelled Joker.

"This is Shipmaster Rtas Vadum of the _Shadow of Intent_, hailing Commander Shepard, Shipmaster of the _Normandy_."

"This is Shepard, go ahead Shipmaster."

"This is bad; the other races are not yet ready, not positioned. What is the status of the _Normandy's_ upgrades?"

"EDI, bring it up please."

The galaxy map vanished, replaced with the glowing orange hologram of the _Normandy_.

The old upgrades were the same orange as the ship, while the new upgrades outlined blue.

The patchwork of the breached Silensi Heavy Armor and the UNSC battle armor stood out. Check.

The "Spider Trap" as Ashley named them, the pop-up 50mm rotary barreled Gauss Point Defense Turrets, placed one on each 'wing', two on the upper hull, and one underneath protecting the bottom. Check.

The mini-MAC as the engineers from the Grizzly had named it, slung under the hull, the loading mechanism replacing the Thanix cannons and Jacks old hide out. Check.

The _Normandy's_ standard Mass Accelerator Cannons. Check.

Disruptor Torpedoes replaced with Javelin Anti Ship missiles. Check.

In the hangar, a large, complex, but simple to operate Archer Mark Two missile pod. Not check.

"Shipmaster, our Archer missile system, and our energy shield system are not ready yet.

Everything else seems to be in order."

"Shipmaster Shepard, the Citadel fleet is unready to fight this kind of battle. Order them to bunch up, so the Reapers wont single any of them out, I'm sending the Super Carrier '_Unending Faith' _ to the other races ships to protect them. The Major Ultra will take his cruiser '_Endless Watch'_ and link up with the _Dawn_, _Grizzly_, and the _Normandy_. I want you four to watch out for each other. The 'Fleet of Unending Vow' will protect the other races.

"EDI, range to when the Reapers will be in firing range of the fleets guns?"

"Three minutes."

In coming fleet wide broadcast, from the IROS battle Cruiser '_Endless Watch'_.

An Elite Voice spoke.

"Humans, Asari, Turians, Krogan, Salarians, Xenomorphs, my Brothers."

There will come a day, when we break all promises, and forsake our allies, our brothers.

Sounds of anguish, as each and every one of your worlds come crashing down around you.

But it is not this day, this day we fight to protect ourselves, our families, our allies, our friends, and our loved ones. The Reapers have brought out their full numbers. If we win today, the Reapers end. If we lose, the Reapers will destroy your worlds.

But not this day, this day we will fight!"

The COMs filled with the roar of the fleets' agreement.

"Reapers in range, all ships fire at will!"

For a never ending moment, there was silence.

BOOM-ANG!

A huge flaming comet of tungsten and uranium streaked across the empty space between the enormous Reaper fleet, and the comparably insignificant Citadel and Elite Fleet.

The UNSC Destroyers MAC round impacted the lead Reaper Dreadnoughts overcharged kinetic barriers… and blew out the backside of the Reaper.

The round kept on going, ripping pieces of Reapers off where ever it made contact. Then it did the same to a Reaper, hitting it dead center, obliterating it.

BIOOM! BIOOM! BIOOM!

The Turians fired. The Asari fired. The Krogan fired. The Elites fired.

O0o0o0o0o0o0o0oo0o0o0oo0o0o

"They're falling back! We got them on the run!"

"Hold your position!" the Elite Fleetmaster shouted."Do not break formation! They'll pick you off."

"Fleetmaster, the ODP MAC is operational and ready to fire."

"Give them a taste of what is to come."

BING!

A massive orange meteor of light streaked toward the Reapers, overtaking them instantly from a distance of 80,000 kilometers.

A path of destruction, as the MAC round annihilating Reapers, the blasted parts striking other Reapers with such force, that the struck Reapers were destroyed.

"It's over-For Now."

_**End of Super Battle, part One.**_

_**R&R please.**_


	14. Chapter 14

_**I do not own halo mass effect AVP or any other that appears here.**_

The damage to the Citadel Fleet was enormous.

To start with, the Elites decision to bunch up the ships worked; the overlapping kinetic barriers helping against the Reapers.

The Turians had lost nearly all of their Frigates, destroyed while screening the Dreadnoughts.

The Elites had lost a full ten, of their huge Battle Cruisers.

The Salarians had lost nearly all of their ships.

All had agreed that the plan needed to be effected immediately.

The designated 'Heavy hitters', the _Grizzly_, _Normandy_, _Forward unto Dawn_, and the Elite ship '_Endless_ _Watch'_; were put into a 'gap stop' group.

"Shepard, my Fleet is in bad shape." Fleetmaster Rtas began.

"We anticipated large scale combat with the Reapers, but not this."

"Not against a number that they normally throw against the entire Elite species, not with only a fraction of the ships. We were lucky this time, but I fear that more Reapers are coming."

"More?!" Shepard stammered.

"Yes"

O0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 o0o0o0o

**Far Outer Rim, Migrant Fleet. **

"Admiral, the Relay is showing signs of activation."

"Impossible, the Relay is dormant. None in the Migrant Fleet would dare activate it."

"The only way it would start t be activated is if… is if something on the other side activates it!"

"Emergency fleet wide broadcast!"

"This is Admiral of the _Neema_; the Relay is active, repeat active!"

"All Combat Vessels, Emergency Battle Stations!"

O0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 o0o0o0o

"Code Black! Code Black! Reapers have breached Parveln's orbital perimeter…!"

O0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 0o0o0o0

"Urdnot Wrex, the Reapers have engaged our ships at the Relay."

"So it begins"

O0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 o0o0o0o0

"Shadow Broker, we have lost all contact with our operations on the Turians home world."

"Boss, we've lost contact with our agents on Turtonka. Please advise."

"Shadow Bro-, the Citadel is being attacked by -, repeat, they're not Reapers-uk."

Liara watched as one by one, her information team leaders lost contact with their units, then as she lost contact with the team leaders themselves, as their bases were attacked by some unknown, overwhelming enemy.

Then the Extranet shut down.

Liara (aka the Shadow Broker) was cut off.

O0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Silence.

The Geth collective was stopped for a full minute, as the extranet shut down.

The near entirety of the Geth was gathered at the edge of the Veil; prepared to attack the Old Machines.

Suddenly, a huge blue/purple portal opened between the Geth Fleet, and the Relay.

A massive ship, over 250km long, 150km wide, and 100 km thick; appeared out of the portal.

The ship sent one message.

"_**Mortals have gained the attention of those indefinitely greater than themselves."**_

"_**Those who you call "Old Machines" were but minions of ours."**_

"_**They have failed us, but this changes nothing"**_

"_**Your destruction, as well as that of Mortals, is guaranteed."**_

"_**We are the Precursors."**_

"_**And the moment of our return, is at hand." **_

With that, as the Geth were still reeling from this new info, the huge ship opened fire.

**Unknown place, unknown date.**

Status…

Ark status: operational.

Halo status: 12/12 intact, disarmed.

Onyx status: activated. ALERT: 4 Reclaimers present, 10 humans present.

Requiem status: secure, precursor terminated, Didact released.

Earth status: WARNING human home world invaded. Objective failed.

Sanghelios status: WARNING Sangheili home world invaded. Uninhabited. Objective failed.

Flood status: extinct. Objective completed.

Ravager artificialus status: 23,000,000 units operational.

Precursor status: present.

End status search.

The Librarian leaned back, and looked at the Monitor floating beside her.

"It is time to put my husband's final plan into effect. Offensive Bias?"

"Yes?"

"Awaken the warriors from their slip space cryosleep."

"Yes ma'am."

"Also, ready the ships. I want 4 of the Reclaimer class Dreadnoughts."

"Yes Ma'am"

O0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 o0o0o0o0o0o

"This is general Septimus, acting leader of Turian forces on, and above Parveln, pull back and retreat."

The few remaining Turian ships rotated, and fled towards the Relay, cores redlining.

Suddenly, a massive EMP exploded around four huge Portals.

Then, four enormous ships appeared out of the portals.

"No fraging way! That's impossible!"

Each of the 50 kilometer long ships bows lit up blue.

A massive cobalt blue beam streaked out at near the speed of light, towards the fast approaching Reapers.

The beams split into thousands of smaller beams, and struck the lead Reapers.

The Reaper dreadnoughts kinetic barriers did nothing to stop or protect against the cobalt beams.

Blasting straight through the Reapers, the cobalt beams arced from one Reaper to the next, a thousand Reapers in the first strike, another thousand Reapers in the second strike, another thousand, and so on and so forth.

In minutes, the entire orbit was choked with the gutted and destroyed shells of Reapers.

Three of the four massive ships descended into the atmosphere.

Each of the ships hovered above a Reaper infested city.

Lines of turreted guns along the ships flanks lit up the same cobalt blue.

Tens of thousands of inch thick beam streaked into the city, striking Reaper infantry, arcing from enemy to enemy, arcing around corners and through walls as needed.

In mere moments, entire cities were cleared of Reapers, Ships, infantry, and other wise.

"General Septimus, incoming message from the ship still in orbit." The radar operator called out.

"Put it on"

The holographic screen flared to life.

It presented a fully armored head and shoulders, and at first, Septimus thought he was looking at a human.

"You are General Septimus, present leader of the Turians. Correct?" An odd female's voice asked.

"Yes?" Septimus answered.

"Good, my ships have removed the Reapers here, all of them and their devices and their slaves. I will depart and do the same for the Asari, Salarians, and the Krogan."

"Wait! What is your name? Who are you? What are your?" Septimus asked in a rush.

The armored woman of unknown race paused for a moment.

"We are the Forerunners; the ancient stewards and protectors of the galaxy."

"Forty million years ago, my kind defeated the Reapers and their masters, only to be beaten by the Reapers comrades, and forced to destroy all life in the galaxy."

"Long has my kind watched from the shadows, too few to aid the trapped civilizations as they rise and fall."

"But now the ancients have revealed themselves."

"Ancient enemies turned allies shall reunite"

"And the Reapers masters shall set their wills against us, in the upcoming battles."

"The key is Reach"

The person-the Forerunner- paused.

"Librarian out"

O0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Here they come!"

"Hold your ground!"

"Status!"

"Range, 130,000 kilometers!"

"Orbital Defense Station, you are weapons free.

BING!

"Range 100,000 kilometers!"

BING!

BING!

"Range 80,000 kilometers!"

"Xeno Hive, you are in range, open fire"

"_Complying" _

The main weapons on the 20km long Carrier/Hive thing ripple-fired, mass accelerators, ranging from an ancient Asari dreadnought, to an even more ancient UNSC destroyer's MAC gun, spewed heavy metal at the approaching Reapers.

"Range 65,000 kilometers, Battle Group Alpha, engage!"

The 32 committed Elite Cruisers, Destroyers, and Assault Carriers accelerated forwards, to meet their enemy.

All the while, the ODP flinging 3300 tons of metal every 5 seconds.

BING!

BING!

"This is the Shadow of Intent, we are engaged."

Shepard watched, as in the distance, the fate of Earth was being decided, decided be aliens that, until just weeks ago, no one had ever heard of, aliens that had survived millions of years of isolation and siege by the Reapers, aliens that had come to humanity's aid, because of a ancient promise made between the aliens and ancient humans.

Aliens that were risking the complete destruction of their species, to uphold an ancient promise.

"Range 30,000 kilometers, Battle Group Bravo, engage!"

This time, the Turians, whose dreadnoughts had remained mostly untouched, all 18 of them, accelerated.

BING!

BING!

"There's too many of them! They'll reach the final line with too much force!"

"Commander Shepard, incoming message from IROS Cruiser _Endless Watch_." EDI alerted.

"Shepard, is your ship armed with the UNSCs Archer missiles?" Asked Shipmaster Ny'Kle-the shape shifter in Elite form.

"Affirmative Shipmaster." Shepard replied.

"I have a plan, that might just work…"

Shepard listened in growing disbelief, as the shape-shifting Elite quickly laid out his plan.

"That's so crazy, that it might really work." Shepard said with new respect for the million plus year old alien.

"I calculate that there is a 12.2354679% chance of the plan working." EDI quipped up.

"Good enough for me"

"Alert the _Grizzly_ and the _Forward unto Dawn_." Shipmaster Ny'Kle said.

Change POV.

Rtas pulled himself off the deck.

"Status!"

"Sir, shields at 24% and holding. All weapons except the forward energy projector are offline. Hull integrity is at 67%, with hull breaches on mid-ship upper decks. All breached areas have been sealed."

"Fleet status."

"Sir, the _Shadow_ _of_ _Intent_, two destroyers, and four cruisers are all that remain, all heavily damaged."

"Sir, incoming message from shipmaster Shepard."

"Let's hear it." Rtas said warily, truly tired.

"Fleetmaster, get out of there, the _Grizzly_, _Dawn_, and _Normandy_ are going to spray the area with Archer missiles, shield-by-passing."

Rtas's eyes widened with realization of what that meant.

"_Shadow of Intent_ acknowledges. You are clear."

'_This has to work'_ Rtas thought grimly, but with a ray of hope.

Change POV back to Shepard.

"EDI, lock in a target for each Archer missile." Shepard said.

"Aye, Commander."

Ny'Kle came on the radio.

"Too long has your kind eradicated life from the galaxy."

"Too long has your kind held dominion over the galaxy."

"Too long have you hunted the free peoples of the galaxy"

"But it ends today."

"As the man once said, 'Hey! Stupids? Knock-knock!'"

And with that, the _Normandy_, _Grizzly_, and the _Forward unto Dawn_ released their missiles…

"All ships are in the clear. Time to impact?"

"15 seconds."

"10 seconds."

"5 seconds."

"Now!"

The Archer missiles streaked in passed the point where the Reapers kinetic barriers would be, and impacted the hulls…

A total of 640 missiles were launched. A total of 640 missiles impacted the Reaper ships.

Each missile carried a 12 kiloton non-nuclear warhead, incased in a shell designed to penetrate the armor of Reapers, or similar ships.

The Reapers, which could normally survive a direct contact nuclear explosion of over 50 kilotons, were decimated, as the Archer missiles penetrated the 12 meter thick hulls, and then detonated, using the Reapers nearly indestructible armored hulls to contain the nuclear grade explosion inside the ship.

The first strike was followed up, 15 seconds later, by another salvo of Archers.

The _Grizzly_ and _Dawn_ kept up the rate of fire for 5 minutes, firing over 128000 missiles, every missile hitting a Reaper ship.

The combined energy was over 153,600,000 tons of TNT.

When the glare faded, all 15,000 Reapers were nothing more, than drifting husks.

_**Super Battle part two.**_

_**Please R&R.**_


	15. Chapter 15

_**I do not own Halo, Mass effect, AVP, or any other that may appear.**_

"Ah…" the big Elite sighed as it slid into the booth.

Shepard, Tali, and Captain Jack Sparcil moved over to make room.

The Elite, Ny'Kle, Shipmaster of the Endless watch was silent as he looked over the hangar of the ODP, which had been converted into an eating place for the victorious free peoples.

Humans, Elites, Turians, Asari, Xenos, Krogan, and Salarians all mixed as equals, as friends, as allies.

"Never did I ever think that I would see the day, when the Reapers would be beaten back, and all the free peoples would be together in a peaceful setting." Ny'Kle rumbled.

Shepard spoke up.

"Ny'Kle, how old are you? Are you a natural born shape shifter? How many battles and wars have you fought in? How-"

"Easy Shepard. That which you ask of, is history stretching back over a billion years. Most of it I have purposely not thought about, or have 'put on the back burner' as the saying goes."

"OK"

"First off, no, I am not a natural born shape shifter. I was hatched as a Xeno."

"Wait. Hatched? Xeno?"

"Yes. That was when I discovered I was against Host Birthing, using living hosts to incubate Xeno young. Then after I made my first kill, and felt bad about it, I was sent away. Then awhile after that, the Precursors caught me."

"Precursors?" Shepard questioned.

Ny'Kle's eyes became slited, and flashed to Jacks, who nodded so slightly, that Shepard didn't notice anything pass between them.

"An ancient, and all but extinct race. Biped, with four arms."

"They captured me, and tortured the Queen in front of me. They said that they were the reason that my kind could think. That they had come to collect their dues. And that the Queen had refused to cooperate, and through her, the entire Hive. They offered me a chose:

Join them, travel the stars, and fight those that would destroy all the innocent little hosts.

Or, I could be abandoned. Alone in a land full of hosts that viewed my kind as monsters in the dark, only good to kill, and to exterminate."

Ny'Kle paused to stretch his bulk.

"As you can see, I'm still here, so you can guess which chose I choose."

"I fought against the Flood, an ancient parasitic life-form. It survives by consuming intelligent biomass, and warping it into a twisted, mutated version of its former self, retaining the memories of the consumed, and keeping the consumed aware of its actions, but unable to control its own body, as the infection commanded its body."

"Our Xenomorph bodies were immune to the infection, as our blood was concentrated molecular-oxidizing acid."

"After untold millennium of fighting, we won. The Flood defeated, de-organicfied. Then I was offered another chose:

"To become a Precursor."

"I accepted."

"Wait, so you're one of them Precursors?" Shepard asked.

"No. Right now, I'm an Elite." Ny'Kle answered.

"But you just said-"

"I said I accepted, I did not say that I became one. They said I had the equivalent of 24 hours before the changing."

Ny'Kle closed his eyes.

Shepard could tell by the way that he was doing the Elite equivalent of a smile that he was thinking about something good.

"Ha, to make a long story short, the Changing left my able to change my shape to whatever race I concentrated on."

"That was over 37 million years ago."

"I had views that conflicted with theirs. I was banished. Banished to live, and then die, again and again, for all eternity, until I find peace."

Ny'Kle sighed.

"Until I find Peace eh? Cryptic?"

o0o0o0o0o0o0

Jack listened on to Ny'Kle's story.

Oh sure he'd heard of it, and even heard part of it before, but there was nothing like sitting down, and listening to a 12 foot tall alien pour out his life story.

Jack knew there were some things that Ny'Kle wasn't saying. He could even tell when the alien bit back a sentence or two.

Jack wondered how he did it.

Jack could not wrap his mind around being born, growing up, living a life, then starting to acquire knowledge and memories of past lives, then stop aging about mid-age, then dying of some non-age related reason decades later, only to repeat the cycle again.

The Elite was considerably older than the last time Jack had met him, that being when Ny'Kle-then only in his early twenties- had chosen Jack to be the Captain of the Grizzly, right before Jack and the crew had entered Cryosleep.

O0o0o0o0o

Ny'Kle and Shepard were talking about Ny'Kles exploits as a Fleetmaster during the Human-Covenant War.

Jack, who'd been relaxing and just chilling, noticed Fleetmaster Rtas approaching.

Jack snapped his fingers.

Ny'Kle looked up.

"Fleetmaster"

"Major Ultra" Rtas said.

Rtas prodded a young Elite in red armor forward.

"I would like to present our newest Major Doma to you, Namya Vadum, my many times great, grand-daughter. "

Ny'Kle made a fist with his right hand, and held it against his chest once, placing it where his left heart was, making a Sangheilian salute.

The Major Doma blushed bright purple, and returned the salute.

Ny'Kle sighed as Rtas steered Namya away.

"A pretty little thing, isn't she? Wish I was that young again."

It was late.

Most of the warriors had either dispersed back to their own ships, or to the bunking areas set aside for the various species.

Or, in the Elites case, they had paired off, male to female, and dispersed.

As the crowd grew thinner, some of the older people, mostly Elites and Xenos, and a few Asari and older Humans and Turians, started to gather on the upper walkways that had been converted as an eating place.

The older ones, Elites and a Xeno or two, pulled chairs (or, in the Xenos case, they just perched in the wall nearby) up to the booth where Ny'Kle and Shepard were sitting.

Rtas was among them.

Ny'Kle had reached the point in his story, where as he, and his fleet of volunteer veterans were hunting down the remnants of the Covenant, they happened upon a mysterious distress beacon.

When all told, it was Ny'Kle the Elites' first experience with Xenomorph…

Klaxons wailed.

Ny'Kle rolled out of the bunk, onto the hard floor.

_'Ouch'_

"Incoming Reapers, range, 8,000 kilometers."

Ny'Kle ran down the corridor, down the stairs, and into the station control room.

"What is the situation?"

A Xenomorphs mind entered his own.

_'Old One, the Reapers used visual cloaking to close in with the Fleet. It seems that it is a harassment group, one capitol ship, with three destroyers.'_

"What is the Fleet like?"

_'Sir, the _Shadow of Intent, Normandy, Grizzly, Endless Watch, _the _Hive, _and two destroyers, four cruisers of the Elites, seven cruisers and destroyers combined of the Turians, and 12 frigates, destroyers, and cruisers total of the Asari, Krogan, and Salarians.'_

"30 ships total?" Ny'Kle asked in disbelief.

_'No sir, I was simply numbering combat capable ships.'_

Another Xeno mind entered Ny'Kles mind, the Queens.

_'It. Is. Them.'_ She simply stated.

Those words sent a tremble of fear down Ny'Kles back.

'Them.'

O0o0o0o0o0o

"Shepard, incoming message from the Xeno ODP,"EDI stated, "The message is from Shipmaster Ny'Kle."

"Put it on"

"All ships, defensive positions. No bunching up, space your ships two hundred meters apart. I want the _Shadow of Intent_ in the center, alongside the Super Carrier. Super Carrier, prepare for long range ship to ship combat, high tonnage."

"Aye Sir" the reply came across the Battle Network.

'What could the enemy be? We never did anything this specific-'

"Shepard! Sub-dimensional ruptures detected! Between Luna and Mars," EDI called out.

"Put it on the Galaxy Map." Shepard called back.

What Shepard saw chilled him to the bone.

Four semi geometric/semi organic (organic as in like the Covenant ships) ships, sporting Mass Accelerator muzzles, turrets, hangers, and pod-like objects, appeared onto the Galaxy Map projector.

Then he saw the scale.

"EDI, how big are those things?" Shepard asked in a fearful and disbelieving voice.

"Calculating… wait, recalculating… all four ships are 45 kilometers long, I cannot even start to calculate the weight, obviously very high tonnage."

Shepard was speechless.

"Commander, incoming full spectrum message, from the lead ship."

**"Mortals have gained the attention of those indefinitely greater than themselves."**

**"Those who you call "Reapers" were but minions of ours."**

**"They have failed us, but this changes nothing"**

**"Your destruction hangs in the balance."**

**"We are the Precursors."**

**"And the moment of our return, is at hand." **

**"You managed to defeat the bulk of the active Reapers, no easy feat."**

**"So we are making a onetime offer:"**

**"Surrender now and you will be allowed to live. Terms of surrender are non-negotiable."**

The battle network was silent.

"This lieutenant Commander Shepard, captain of the Human Alliance Frigate SSV _Normandy_. I cannot decide the fate of my species myself. May we be given time to decide with our superiors?"

Time stretched on.

**"It has been decided."**

**"The ships in orbit around the third planet of this solar system may meet on the largest ship among yourselves, and decide among your selves, your species fates."**

**"You have three rotations of this planet on its axis to decide."**

_**Will update.**_

_**_Ny'Kle**_


	16. Chapter 16

_**I do not own halo, mass effect, AVP, and any other that may appear. **_

"Assembled Captains, Admirals, Shipmasters, and others." Fleetmaster Rtas began.

"A simple show of hands, all for surrendering, raise your right hand, and say 'Aye'"

No one raised their hands, or said anything.

"All for fighting, do the same."

No one raised or said anything.

"So, who has a plan?"

"Fleetmaster, would you go over what you know about these 'Precursors'." Shepard suggested.

Rtas sighed.

"The Precursors are an ancient race."

"As far as we can tell, they either conquered, or created the Reapers."

"In any way, they control the Reapers, they command them."

"In our first contact with the Precursors, the current Humans had just finished a massive war, but had an orbital defense grid of 300 of the Super MAC ODPs. The Precursors attacked Earth first, but we had a large protective fleet above Earth.

The Precursors ships, while having shields that could withstand multiple Super MAC rounds, and hull armor that could do the same, were no match for over 300 Super MAC shells every 5 seconds."

But after that first victory, more Precursor ship came. They came to more planets, planets without Super MAC support.

"52 years later, we won. A total of 30 something Precursor combat ships were destroyed. They had not expected such a strong resistance, and had not planned for such a long term military expedition."

After that, the governments came to the conclusion that a change needed to be made. They exiled us, the commanders, and captains, and replaced us with younger ones.

They gave us our ships, the ones we'd fought on during the Human/Covenant War. They packed us, our families, and shipped us to an unknown planet. They sent the humans to another."

"18 years later, radio signals showed that the Precursors attacked again."

"These signals continued for almost 100 years."

"The last messages were that the Humans, Elites, and the Covenant species were fleeing to the Ark."

Ny'Kle stepped forward.

"We do not have the ships to fight the Precursors in space. We don't have the troops to fight them on the ground either; neither do we have the weapons to fight them on the ground."

"So what do we do?"

"We'll need a diversion. Something to draw them off while we evacuate."

"To where?" Asked Shepard.

"To Reach." Ny'Kle answered.

Rtas stood up from his seat.

"Reach? Is it even still there?"

"Oh it's there. I put forth the motion that we evacuate to Reach. The Xenomorph Queen has given me reason to believe that the Precursors do not know the location of it."

The Turian commander stood.

"But any attack against those ships would be useless. They're each bigger than the Citadel."

"It might be useless for your own ships to attack, but the Elites have the Super Carrier, that 27 kilometer thing. I know for a fact that its shields can take the kinetic energy of the Precursors main guns." Ny'Kle answered back.

Rtas stood. Everyone else stopped talking.

"All in favor of a delaying action while the remaining ships evacuate civilians to the secure planet of Reach say 'Aye'".

"Aye".

"Aye"

"Aye"

"Aye"

"Aye"

"Then it is settled. If this is the end, then let us make such an end, as to be worthy of remembrance."

"**Humans, Turians, Asari, Sangheili, Krogan, Xenomorph, Salarians, the time has come for your answer."**

"The Humans answer is: No. we will not surrender."

"Turians will not bow down to any enemy."

"You already know the Sangheilians answer."

"The Krogan have never bowed to anyone, and will not start now."

"The Citadel forces answer to no one except the council. We reject your offer of surrender."

"**What of you? Xenomorphs? What do our creations say?"**

BING!

The Xenos answered with 3300 tons of tungsten.

The Precursors made no attempt to maneuver out of the way.

The equivalent of 56 penta-megatons (a 12 digit number) of kinetic energy (compared to an Alliance Dreadnoughts 5 digit number) simply exploded into dust as it hit the Precursors shields.

"Attack!"

The defenders cheers filled the COMs, as the center Precursor ships middle buckled under the force of gravity.

The defenders ships closed in for the kill.

And for the first time, the Precursors returned fire…

The mid-range turrets fired. (Good comparison, is the "Bofors 40mm Model 1936", a 40mm quad barreled AA gun. Only these turrets are about the size of an entire Human/Covie War era UNSC Frigate)

These turrets fired twin streams of death, ion enveloped projectiles overloading kinetic barriers, and punching holes in hulls.

But it was not enough.

_BING!_

The Super MAC station fired, penetrating the weakened shields (weakened because of the turret fire), and penetrated the hull.

Back in the Human/Covie War, it was said that, if the Covies could make a ship, with armor that could hold out a round from a Super MAC, everything behind the armor would be reduced to slag by the shear kinetic energy. This holds true, even against the Precursors.

The vital devices that powered the ships' shields, engines, weapons, and gravity were obliterated.

For a moment, the hull was lit in the glare of the ships emergency thrusters tried in vain to do what the full might of the main engines failed to.

The 45 kilometer long Precursor ship, moving at 2 ship lengths a second (90km/sec), impacted into the Himalayan Mountains, covering the region with debris.

_**Sorry for the long up date.**_


	17. Chapter 17

_**I do not own Halo ME, AVP or any other.**_

_**Note: this chapter well is a little different, and will be told from a POV of looking back. **_

**Place: Slipspace, on route to RV point called "Reach".**

**IRoS S-CAS class Carrier **_**Shadow of Intent**_

**Status: Heavy Damage, weapons off line, shields off line, main plasma reactor off line, many hull breaches, life support off line in many places.**

Slip Space message.

Sender: Rtas Vadum.

Receiver: IRoS High Council.

All is lost brothers. The Fleet of Unending Vow is gone. Out of the original 110 ship, only the Shadow of Intent, the Endless watch, the Mercy and Betrayal II, and the Majestic Menace are all that remain.

We engaged many Reaper Constructs.

After 4 local solar days of fighting, the Humans allies sent reinforcements.

After another 5 days of fighting the Reaper Constructs, a new ship, one of many fragments of ship hull put together, entered the Sol system. It matter no hostile acts, no attempts at communication, and none were made towards it.

2 local days later, yet another ship entered system, though this one was welcome. It was one 'UNSC heavy destroyer Grizzly'.

It was at that time, that the unknown ship made first radio contact. Using a dead humans' communications method, it demanded that the Shipmaster of one of the human ships in particular Shipmaster commander Shepard (yes brothers, he is a descendant of the ancient humans' Master Chief'), board their vessel.

The vessel turned out to be a Hive ship of the ancient race named by the ancient humans, as 'Xenomorphs".

They had the Spartans ship, the Forward unto Dawn, the very same that took part in the Battle of the Ark in the battle against the Prophet of Truth. It had been recovered by a Xenomorph.

They also had a human ODP, taken from the wreckage of the ancient humans' ODP grid after they retreated to the Ark.

After many battles with the Reaper Constructs, we beat them.

We celebrated. We feasted.

Then, out of the shadows of the void, _THEY_ came.

The Precursors.

Looking back on it, I would venture a guess that the Precursors were not too pleased with the destruction their minions.

Three dominator class medium cruisers approached. They offered a chance to surrender. Thanks to some fancy word play from Shipmaster Shepard, the Precursors allowed us three solar days to come up with an answer.

After that time they demanded a reply. The answer was anaminous. Each of the races rejected the Precursors offer of surrender.

Each race knew the consequences of refusing. The Xenomorph replied by firing the Orbital Super MAC at their creators, leaving us and the Precursors no doubt of the Xenomorphs loyalties.

The Xenomorphs MAC shot did not have any effect.

In the following battle, 36 combat capable warships, against three dominator class medium cruisers, all but the Shadow of Intent, the Endless watch, the Mercy and Betrayal II, the Majestic Menace, the human frigate Normandy, the Xenomorph Hive ship, the Forward unto Dawn, and the UNSC ship Grizzly were either destroyed or made combat en-effective, and captured.

The Old One, the Major Ultra, the Shipmaster of the cruiser Endless Watch, elected to stay behind. He was most determined in his decision to stay.

At present, the Shadow of Intent, Endless Watch, Majestic Menace, Normandy, Grizzly, and the Xenomorph Hive ship are in route to the ancient Human Fortress World of Reach, along with rescued survivors from the ships of the Alliance's allies.

Sender: Imperial Admiral and Fleet/Shipmaster Rtas Vadum.

Receiver: Sangheili High Council on Sanghelios 2.

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	18. Chapter 18

**Sorry for the long update.**

**In other news, I received Mass Effect 3 for Christmas. As well as Halo 4. These should help in the story.**

**Just for a heads up, EDI did not get a robot body, Ashley did not get beaten up, and nobody knows about the Crucible, it will not be part of the story at all. The Normandy doesn't have the QDT communicator, or the War room. Figure the Normandy from ME 2. **

**At this point, Shepard has the following crew and team members:**

**Ashley**

**Tali**

**Samara**

**James**

**The two crew down in Engineering**

**Vector (the Xenomorph)**

"All hands, brace for transition."

Sheppard grabbed a hold of the railing on the galaxy map projector.

The ship lurched forward with moderate deceleration.

"EDI?" Sheppard asked.

The galaxy map changed from the hologram of the Normandy, to a color projection of a garden planet.

The most immediate thing he noticed was the giant impact crater that dominated the center part of the hemisphere that he could see.

Second, was the weird string-like mist that hung about the planet, like its atmosphere was being siphoned away.

"EDI, where are we?"

"Stand-by… stand-by… position found. Shepard we are in the Epsilon Eridani system, a system not part of the Mass Relay network."

"EDI, give me a report of everything you can find out about it."

"Yes Commander"

Shepard stepped back from the Galaxy Map, just in time for Joker to call out to him.

"Uh, Commander, the Fleetmaster? He's asking that you take a shuttle to the surface to the following coordinates."

"Okay Joker; James, Tali, Samara, meet me in the shuttle bay." Shepard called out into the COMs.

"Just wait up Shepard." Ashley said, stepping out from behind a padded strut.

Sighing, Sheppard asked.

"What is it Ash?"

"How come you always take the aliens when you go on missions?"She asked.

"What do you-"

"You know what I mean Shepard. I've seen the ships reports. On every mission you went on, the only persons you took were either Garrus and Tali, or that Geth and Samara. Why?"

"Because Garrus always had a sniper rifle, and had great tech skills, and Tali had her shotgun and even better tech skills. Samara had biotics and assault rifles, and Legion had tech skills and a big sniper rifle. It's as easy as that. Now are you asking why I just chose not to take you down to the surface? Is that it?"

Ashley hardened her face.

"Yes. That's exactly why."

"Because you're the only one I trust with the ship. That's why."

Ashley's stone hard expression fell.

"You're the only one has before. When I took Garrus and Wrex down to Ilos, who did I leave in command? You."

Ashley got a blank expression and stared at the floor.

"Ash, look at me."

She did.

"If things ever go bad, if the ship is boarded, if I get stranded on the surface, I can rest easy knowing that you're the one standing here, commanding the ship."

"Shepard… I…thank you. Thank you Sheppard."

Shepard nodded.

"You're welcome. Now take the deck… first officer Ashley Williams."

She saluted and turned face.

Shepard grinned and opened the elevator doors.

The doors closed.

'_What is it that just happened?' _Asked the ever present Vector.

"Just that I gave Ashley Williams command of the ship when I am not on it." Shepard answered without looking up at the Xenomorph.

'_But why? Why is it that you do not just command the ships Drones with the Hive Mind?' _

"Because, Humans and others do not have a Hive Mind. Only the Xenomorph and Rachni have Hive Minds. Humans and the other species are individual minds; we have to speak with our mouths to communicate with one another.

Vector was silent for the rest of the elevator ride.

At the armory, Sheppard selected a fully upgraded Avenger V with attached scope and extra sized mag. Tali took a scimitar with large bore barrel, and extra spare mag. Samara took a Revenant III with extra sized mag and stabilizer. James took his normal load out of a Matlock IV with scope and extra sized mag.

And then there was Vector. He took nothing.

As the team boarded the Kodiak shuttle, Shepard looked across the Hanger and reflected on the events that led to this.

There were large panels of UNSC titanium hull plating patching equally large holes in the deck and bulkheads, from where the Reapers guns had struck the Normandy a few glancing blows, and once where a shot from one of the Precursors point defense guns had put a five meter shell vertically through the hanger.

The Precursors had appeared, demanded surrender, gotten 'no' as an answer, and had cruised forward toward Earth, shields bouncing everything that the defenders threw at them.

The defenders had focused on one ship, worn down its shields some, and when they returned fire for the first time, had weakened their shields to let their shots through, and had received a Super MAC shell.

The MAC shot reduced the center of the Precursors ship to slag with kinetic energy, and had bought the remaining defenders time to disengage and retreat.

Which left Shepard, and the Shadow of Intent, Endless Watch, Majestic Menace, Normandy, Grizzly, and the Xenomorph Hive ship in orbit around a planet that the Elites had apparently slagged a few million years ago.

Shepard gave up on trying to figure out the inner workings of fate and got back to the matter at hand.

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PLACE: Planet Reach.

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_**Will Update Chapter**_


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